Your suggestion is on its way!

Most Emailed Articles

I made aliyah to
Israel in August 1986; Ron Arad was captured by terrorists in October 1986.
It is heart-wrenching to compare the life I have experienced in the years since
I moved to Israel to that which Arad has experienced in captivity, assuming
he is still alive.

Swapping Prisoners

Many Israeli citizens and government officials oppose the prisoner exchange
with Hizbullah - which was approved by a 12-11 vote in the Israeli cabinet in
November 2003 - because it does not include gaining information about Ron Arad.

With their vote,
the Israeli cabinet agreed to release Mustafa Dirani, Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid,
and approximately 400 other Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in exchange for
Israeli civilian and suspected criminal Elchanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of
the three Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah in October 2000 and who are
assumed to be dead.

Dirani and Obeid
were originally kidnapped by Israel to be used as bargaining chips to obtain
Arad's release. Dirani was the former Amal security chief who allegedly captured
IAF navigator Ron Arad when his plane crashed in Lebanon. Dirani reportedly
broke away from Amal in 1987, taking Arad with him. It is believed that Dirani
then "sold" Arad to either Hizbullah or Iranian elements.

Yuval Arad, Ron
Arad's daughter, said she felt Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had abandoned
her father. In a letter to the Prime Minister, she wrote: "I can't understand
how you can sleep at night ... you're about to release the man who tortured
him (her father Ron Arad)."

The Loss of Ron Arad's

On 16 October 1986,
while on a mission over southern Lebanon, Israeli navigator Lieutenant Colonol
Ron Arad and his pilot were forced to parachute out of their Phantom jet due
to a technical problem. While the pilot was rescued in a daring helicopter raid,
Arad fell captive to terrorists belonging to the Amal organization.

Since his capture,
Arad has been denied basic rights of POW's as set down in the Geneva convention.
The international Red Cross has not been permitted to send or receive letters.

Information
on Ron Arad's Whereabouts and Well-Being

In his initial
years of captivity there were signs that Arad was alive. Since 1988, no definite
word has been received regarding Arad's health or the conditions of his captivity.
Nevertheless, the Israeli government and public insist that Ron Arad will be
believed to be alive unless it is proved to the contrary.

The Vinograd Commission,
a committee established by the IDF, concluded that the government should assume
that Arad is still alive. The committee reportedly examined thousands of documents
collected since Arad's capture and concluded that there was no evidence to change
the assumption that he is still alive.

Recently, in October
2003, three former Iranian diplomats and intelligence officials, currently residing
in Europe, said that missing IAF navigator Ron Arad is alive and being held
in a prison near Tehran, according to Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. On
the one hand, the testimonies can not be verified and should be regarded with
caution. On the other hand, there isn't a clear motivation for the ex-Iranians
to fabricate this story.

One of the ex-Iranians
claims that he worked and Arad was being held in a secret, heavily-guard prison
near Tehran in the late 1990's. The source said he had access to Arad's files,
saw Arad several times, and even exchanged words with him. According to this
ex-Iranian, Arad tried to escape from his captivity while in Lebanon and was
shot and wounded by his guards. In mid 1994, Arad was transferred via Syria
to Iran. Before being transferred he underwent an operation to paralyze his
legs in order to prevent him from escaping. Arad is, thus, confined to a wheelchair.
The source also said that Arad was hospitalized twice for heart problems.

Despite the findings
of the Vinograd Commission and the above, as well as other second, third and
fourth hand, testimony concerning Arad's current well-being, there are many
who doubt Arad is alive. They say that if Arad was alive, his captors would
have used him already to get something from Israel. Israeli columnist Ron Edelist
is one of those who believes Arad is dead. Edelist criticizes Israel's intelligence
activities and inability to resolve the case of Ron Arad: "Never has Israel
invested so much manpower and efforts over so long a time to locate one person."

The Release of Ron Arad

Arad's family was
extremely disheartened by the Israeli governments decision to give up Dirani
and Obeid in a prisoner exchange with Hizbullah without gaining information
about Arad. They say they no longer believe in Israel's official proclamations
to do everything possible to secure Arad's release.

Arad's brother, Dudu, claims that Israeli officials are no longer trying to
find answers to the family's main question - where is Ron Arad today? "We can
no longer say that they are doing everything for us," he told Maariv. "We are
alone in this battle. We no longer have expectations from the authorities."

It must be noted
that before finalizing and approving the prisoner swap with Hizbullah, Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz agreed to a new
aggressive policy aimed at securing information about Arad. In fact, it is said
that the prisoner exchange deal includes a clause regarding new efforts to secure
information about Ron Arad. These efforts may include the kidnapping of additional
"bargaining chips" to be used in future negotiations.